Since entering office in 2000, Governor Perry has consistently supported measures that severely restrict women's ability to get and afford reproductive health care and that infringe upon their personal freedoms.

It is impossible to overstate the callousness of the state regulation and the harm it will inflict. The program serves more than 100,000 uninsured, low-income women, with the federal government paying 90 percent of the roughly $40 million that it costs.

"The sooner we start providing sonograms to those considering abortions, the more lives we can save," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement. "The Fifth Circuit's decision requires abortion providers to immediately comply with the sonogram law, appropr